A Beautiful New Life
by emeraldangel999
Summary: Buffy's visit to Angel at Wolfram & Hart causes some unexpected results.


This takes place during Season 5 of Angel, post-Season 7 of Buffy. No one at Wolfram & Hart knows anything about Connor, including the main characters, except for Angel.

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Buffy walked into Angel's outer office at Wolfram & Hart. He could see he wasn't alone, he was talking with a blond woman. More than talking, they were laughing and seemed awfully friendly considering he was the boss around here. And what's with that she wondered. Angel running an evil law firm. Somehow, he thought it was the right thing to do, so she guessed she trusted him. The woman inside was shuffling some papers but Angel never even looked at them. His eyes were on her face. She was talking and gesturing. A flash of light on her finger caught Buffy's attention. She saw the blond woman was wearing a ring on her finger, a claddagh ring. Just like the one Angel always wore. She looked down at her own hand. Like the one she still wore, even though it had been so many years ago Angel had given it to her. She pulled the ring off and stuck it in her pocket. She wouldn't let him know she still had it. Not now, that he'd clearly moved on. But so had she. There had been Riley and then Spike. But still, she couldn't face the idea that Angel might care for someone else. It wasn't realistic, but she still wanted him to be wanting her, and waiting for a day when maybe they really could be together. Well, maybe she wanted him to be happy. At least it wasn't Cordelia! No that never would have worked, Cordelia wasn't even blond, even if she acted like she was.

"Buffy!?" Angel called her name and brought her back to planet Earth. "Come on in, we're just finishing up here." Damn him, he smiled at that woman again! She walked into the inner office.

"Meet Daphne, she works for Wesley in Ancient Documents." Buffy blinked. This woman is a librarian? Daphne came around from behind Angel's desk and Buffy couldn't help staring at her long legs and her very short skirt. Damn Angel! He was so infuritatingly male!

"Buffy, it's really nice to meet you, I've heard a lot about you!" Her voice had an English accent, with a slight hint of something Buffy couldn't identify. Of course she couldn't, what was she, some sort of linguistic expert? "Angel, if you want to reschedule lunch?" She said it with that "shh" sound, just like Giles, which for some reason annoyed Buffy even more. Why couldn't she have a cute accent? And long legs? Never mind, the woman was finally leaving. Buffy didn't turn to watch her go. It would be painful to see her, uh, from behind. Angel seemed to enjoy the view. Damn him!

"Oh, I don't want to disturb your plans to eat lunch with her...You were going to _eat_ lunch with her?"

"Well, not eat. Liquid lunch. She knows some great things to do with blood, but you don't really want to know about that do you?"

"She has a lot of talents, she's a librarian, she can cook and...I've seen longer skirts on hookers." Oops, that just popped right out. Buffy paused for a minute so she wouldn't say anything else that would annoy him. "Liquid lunch? She's a _vampire_, too?"

"Buffy, I'm not sure why you are here, but I doubt it has anything to do with Daphne." He had serious-face on now. Probably the face he used with his evil lawyer employees and evil-er clients.

"I came along with Willow. She had to get some things from Wesley and I thought it would be fun to see you. Maybe I shouldn't have come, you seem to be living a compeltely different life now, with the sexy blond librarian vampire."

"If you are asking if she and I are dating, yes we are." Now he had serious-er face, if it were possible. "But we've been over this so many times Buffy. You know how I feel about you, but we can't find a way to make it work. We decided we both needed to move on with our lives, and that means new relationships." Buffy couldn't argue with this logic, though she wanted to. "You were with Riley and then Spike." He said it like it was something you needed to get a shot to prevent. "Please don't deny me a chance to find someone that makes me fairly happy."

"Fairly happy? You can't be perfectly happy with me, and I can't be perfectly happy without you." He was silent. "I'm sorry, Angel. Look let's just start over, I'll go back outside and walk in here again. We can really catch up on things, and you can tell me why in hell you are General Evil here at the Evil Incorporated."

"It's a deal." Finally, he smiled.

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Angel was in that halfway world between sleep and waking, fighting off the new day. Why fight; he'd just stay right here for a while. It was nice seeing Buffy again, he hadn't realized how much he had missed her. Soft lips brushing his got his attention, then the gentle kiss that got progressively deeper until it broke away. Eyes still closed, he sighed and enjoyed the feel of her mouth and tongue as it traveled down his neck to his chest, farther and oh, yes, there! When did Buffy learn to do _that_? Probably from Spike. He really shouldn't think about that just now. He smiled as he felt her weight on him as she settled on top and began moving. He let her take the lead on speed and motion and just went along, feeling her breasts occasionally brush his chest. She moved faster and he followed. Her soft cries grew louder and he felt himself slipping away. "Buffy" he whispered so quietly he barely heard his own voice. It felt like he was moving at the speed of light, in a million directions at once. The world was expanding ever-outward and he felt pleasure and happiness and a freedom he couldn't explain. Suddenly, everything stopped abruptly. Now he was wide awake, and it wasn't Buffy sitting on top of him. But it wasn't Angel that opened his eyes, it was Angelus.

**Please let me have your comments on this, especially whether you'd like to read more. Thanks!**


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